do not fit in or need to maintain a certain weight to be someone specific. People need to learn about this deadly disease so they do not become a victim of it. "Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness in which a person has an intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of their weight and body shape. People with this illness believe themselves to be fat even when their weight is so low that their health is in danger. A person with anorexia nervosa severely restricts food intake and usually becomes extremely thin" (Encarta). "It is associated with an exaggerated dread of weight gain and fat, often in spite of emaciation, and to the detriment of other physical and psychological aspects of the individual's life" (Garfinkel, Garner 1). Anorexia nervosa is an extremely hard disease to overcome. Today, this disease affects more people then ever before. .
In the sixties Anorexia Nervosa was usually only found affecting teenage girls in the upper-middle class. "In more than 80 percent of cases studied the anorexic person was not the first born. They are usually the second or third child" (Levenkron 7). Today, this disease mostly affects females from their teens all the way through their sixties. "This disease affects about one half of females and about 90 percent of those people are teenagers. Only about a mere 10 percent of men and children are affected by this disease" (Wolfe 1). Even though the most known occurrences are in teenage girls, it still affects a large group of people. Women become victims of this disease more over men because, "women use appetite as a form of expression more often then men" (Brumberg 2). They do this by a strict diet to form the "ideal" body figure. The obsession over a person's weight comes from today's media. People seen in today's media are extremely thin. When someone sees all the people on TV, billboards, and even magazines they feel as if they will not fit in unless they are the portrayed weight.
